


Never Really Running Away

by SignatorySea



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game), Original Work
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Pain, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-29
Updated: 2019-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:40:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21604666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SignatorySea/pseuds/SignatorySea
Summary: Tolin never can really seem to escape his past.Tolin and Kirene both belong to my friend Irene. I'm just here to help tell their story.
Kudos: 2





	Never Really Running Away

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BobTheFurby](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BobTheFurby/gifts).



Tolin didn't understand why he was here, walking up the front steps of some stranger's house in the middle of the woods. He just got away from the last group of strangers who wanted to take him down for his belief in Zargon. But he is injured. Blood starting to turn his cloak darker, matted heavily in his hair as his vision started to fade. Finding help was his only option at this point, collapsing alone in the woods would surely mean death.

He managed to weakly knock on the door, before collapsing into the chair on the porch. His last sight before darkness claimed him was the door cracking open.

Opening the door, Kirene was greeted with the sight of a tall pale man, cramped into her chair. His clothes and hair matted with blood, that was clearly his own. Without much of a better way to move him, she dragged him inside. Laying him on the rug in front of the fire, before trying to wiggle his robe off him.

She was halfway through cleaning and patching his wounds when she heard the shouts. The sounds of an angry group outside, in search of someone. Rolling her eyes and shoulders, she made her way outside to handle the rowdy trespassers on her property.

Kirene managed to chase them off, a few wounds on her however, as the fight wasn't as clean as she wanted. But they turned tail off her property once they realized the halfling would and could properly kick all of their asses.

Heading back inside, she finished taking care of the semi-familiar man, wrapping him up in a blanket while she laid his clothes out to dry. It wasn't long before he started to stir.

Tolin opened his eyes slowly, groaning from the pain in his body as he slowly sat up. "Easy now. You took quite a blow to your head." Her voice was new, gentle and caring but similar enough to a voice of the past that Tolin panicked. He jumped up, realizing as the nausea overwhelmed him and the blanket fell away, that he was only in his undergarments. A small woman walked into his view.

"Easy there, take it easy. I'm not here to hurt you, found you out on my porch. Just tryin' to help." Something in her gentle tone struck a chord. Easing Tolin back down into a sitting position, she pulled the blanket back over his lap. "Why don't you tell me what happened, so we can sort out how to let you move on from here?" 

Pulling over a foot stool Kirene sits eye level with Tolin, waiting for him to tell his story. And wait she did, afterall she was a complete stranger, and Tolin had gotten enough injuries from complete strangers that he needed to take some time and make a proper judgment on this before just rushing into a story.

His resolve settled however, and he started to tell her of the townsfolk chasing him out for this belief in Zargon, leaving out the part of him being his patron. Kirene just nodded, listening intently, once his tale finished she told him of the people she chased off not to long ago, so for now he was safe from them. And free to stay here until he heals.

"I can't stay, I need to keep moving. Staying only puts you in danger."

"Tolin, I fought off the danger, you are safe here."

He froze like a deer in the headlights, if headlights and cars even existed in this day an age. "How do you know my name? I never told you my name."

She sighed. "I know your story Tolin. We met long ago though you probably don't remember me. You were heavily injured at the time, and that collar had taken a toll on your mental state." As she says collar, her hand travels to her throat, the phantom weight of it still heavy in her memories. "We are both running from that cult. For different reasons, but our pasts are intertwined. Mine, yours, Shabas. We have a similar story that branched into different paths."

A memory flashed before Tolin, him being dragged out of his cell, leaning heavily on his brother as a little redheaded blur helped clear the path for their escape. "Kirene. Your name is Kirene."

She nodded in confirmation. "That is right."

"You helped us escape."

"Only to help myself. You and your brothers magic helped us escape, once we got that thing off you. Though we never could fully get rid of the branding it left behind." She touches the back of her neck, rubbing at the spot hidden by her hair before dropping her hands.

Copying the motion, Tolin could feel the raised bit of skin, an old scar he forgot about out of choice. "Brand? What is it?"

"Your number. All of our numbers were etched into the collars and broken into our skins." Tolin touched the skin again, carefully trying to trace the skin and ignore the screaming at the front of his mind. Of course it wasn't a number he could easily forget, especially after having it barked at him so much he forgot his actual name for a while.  **94.** The number that haunts his waking thoughts and nightmares.

A number he can't ever fully escape. "52."

"What?"

"My number was 52. I had been there a long time, but your brother helped both of us escape. They tried breaking me for a long time, but I put up a fight. It's nice to see you are still kicking, even if it is on a violent path."

"Glad you seem to have made your own little place of peace." A moment of reflection settled between them. The appreciation of the suffering they had been through, turning to a mutual understanding of how tough the world can be, but they kept on fighting.


End file.
